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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 379 records · Page 21
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

An electrostatic nanogenerator based on ZnO/ZnS core/shell electrets with stabilized quasi-permanent charge

ZnO-based nanogenerators with excellent performance and convenient functionalization are particularly desirable for self-powered technology, which is however difficult to achieve simultaneously in traditional piezoelectric ZnO nanogenerators. Here, we report a design of electrostatic ZnO nanogenerator by virtue of a type-II ZnO/ZnS core/shell nanostructure electrets, which can turn acoustic waves into electric power with an energy conversion efficiency of 2.2%. The ZnO/ZnS core/shell electrets are charged by ultraviolet irradiation with a long-term stability of the electrostatic charges under ambient condition. The electronic and atomic structure evolution in the charged ZnO/ZnS core/shell electrets are also discussed by detailed experimental and theoretical investigations. This design opens up an alternative path for fabricating robust ZnO-based nanogenerator for future nanotechnology application.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Particle size effects in particle-particle triboelectric charging studied with an integrated fluidized bed and electrostatic separator system

Fundamental studies of triboelectric charging of granular materials via particle-particle contact are challenging to control and interpret because of foreign material surfaces that are difficult to avoid during contacting and measurement. The measurement of particle charge itself can also induce charging, altering results. Here, we introduce a completely integrated fluidized bed and electrostatic separator system that charges particles solely by interparticle interactions and characterizes their charge on line. Particles are contacted in a free-surface fluidized bed (no reactor walls) with a well-controlled fountain-like flow to regulate particle-particle contact. The charged particles in the fountain are transferred by a pulsed jet of air to the top of a vertically-oriented electrostatic separator consisting of two electrodes at oppositely biased high voltage. The free-falling particles migrate towards the electrodes of opposite charge and are collected by an array of cups where their charge and size can be determined. We carried out experiments on a bidisperse size mixture of soda lime glass particles with systematically varying ratios of concentration. Results show that larger particles fall close to the negative electrode and smaller particles fall close to the positive electrode, consistent with theory and prior experiments that larger particles charge positively and smaller particles charge negatively. The segregation of particles by charge for one of the size components is strongest when its collisions are mostly with particles of the other size component; thus, small particles segregate most strongly to the negative sample when their concentration in the mixture is small (and analogous results occur for the large particles). Furthermore, we find additional size segregation due to granular flow, whereby the fountain becomes enriched in larger particles as the smaller particles are preferentially expelled from the fountain.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Electrostatic rogue-waves in relativistically degenerate plasmas

In this paper, we investigate the modulational instability and the possibility of electrostatic rogue-wave propagations in a completely degenerate plasma with arbitrary degree of degeneracy, i.e., relativistically degenerate plasma, ranging from solid density to the astrophysical compact stars. The hydrodynamic approach along with the perturbation method is used to reduce the governing equations to the nonlinear Schrödinger equation from which the modulational instability, the growth rate of envelope excitations and the occurrence of rogue as well as super-rogue waves in the plasma, is evaluated. It is observed that the modulational instability in a fully degenerate plasma can be quite sensitive to the plasma number-density and the wavenumber of envelop excitations. It is further revealed that the relativistically degeneracy plasmas (R{sub 0} > 1) are almost always modulationally unstable. It is found, however, that the highly energetic sharply localized electrostatic rogue as well as super-rogue waves can exist in the astrophysical compact objects like white dwarfs and neutron star crusts. The later may provide a link to understand many physical processes in such stars and it may lead us to the origin of the random-localized intense short gamma-ray bursts, which “appear from nowhere and disappear without a trace” quite similar to oceanic rogue structures.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Effect of particles attachment to multi-sized dust grains present in electrostatic sheaths of discharge plasmas

The loss of electrons and ions due to their attachment to a Gauss-distributed sizes of dust grains present in electrostatic sheaths of discharge plasmas is investigated. A uni-dimensional, unmagnetized, and stationary multi-fluid model is proposed. Forces acting on the dust grain along with its charge are self-consistently calculated, within the limits of the orbit motion limited model. The dynamic analysis of dust grains shows that the contribution of the neutral drag force in the net force acting on the dust grain is negligible, whereas the contribution of the gravity force is found considerable only for micrometer particles. The dust grains trapping is only possible when the electrostatic force is balanced by the ion drag and the gravity forces. This trapping occurs for a limited radius interval of micrometer dust grains, which is around the most probable dust grain radius. The effect of electron temperature and ion density at the sheath edge is also discussed. It is shown that the attachment of particles reduces considerably the sheath thickness and induces dust grain deceleration. The increase of the lower limit as well as the upper limit of the dust radius reduces also the sheath thickness.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Self-consistent field model for strong electrostatic correlations and inhomogeneous dielectric media

Electrostatic correlations and variable permittivity of electrolytes are essential for exploring many chemical and physical properties of interfaces in aqueous solutions. We propose a continuum electrostatic model for the treatment of these effects in the framework of the self-consistent field theory. The model incorporates a space- or field-dependent dielectric permittivity and an excluded ion-size effect for the correlation energy. This results in a self-energy modified Poisson-Nernst-Planck or Poisson-Boltzmann equation together with state equations for the self energy and the dielectric function. We show that the ionic size is of significant importance in predicting a finite self energy for an ion in an inhomogeneous medium. Asymptotic approximation is proposed for the solution of a generalized Debye-Hückel equation, which has been shown to capture the ionic correlation and dielectric self energy. Through simulating ionic distribution surrounding a macroion, the modified self-consistent field model is shown to agree with particle-based Monte Carlo simulations. Numerical results for symmetric and asymmetric electrolytes demonstrate that the model is able to predict the charge inversion at high correlation regime in the presence of multivalent interfacial ions which is beyond the mean-field theory and also show strong effect to double layer structure due to the space- or field-dependent dielectric permittivity.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Linear electrostatic waves in a three-component electron-positron-ion plasma

Analytical linear electrostatic waves in a magnetized three-component electron-positron-ion plasma are studied in the low-frequency limit. By using the continuity and momentum equations with Poisson's equation, the dispersion relation for the electron-positron-ion plasma consisting of cool ions, and hot Boltzmann electrons and positrons is derived. In the linear regime, the propagation of two possible modes and their evolution are studied. In the cases of parallel and perpendicular propagation, it is shown that these two possible modes are always stable. The present investigation contributes to nonlinear propagation of electrostatic waves in space and the laboratory.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Electrostatically transparent graphene quantum-dot trap layers for efficient nonvolatile memory

In this study, we have demonstrated nonvolatile memory devices using graphene quantum-dots (GQDs) trap layers with indium zinc oxide (IZO) semiconductor channel. The Fermi-level of GQD was effectively modulated by tunneling electrons near the Dirac point because of limited density of states and weak electrostatic screening in monolayer graphene. As a result, large gate modulation was driven in IZO channel to achieve a subthreshold swing of 5.21 V/dec (300 nm SiO{sub 2} gate insulator), while Au quantum-dots memory shows 15.52 V/dec because of strong electrostatic screening in metal quantum-dots. Together, discrete charge traps of GQDs enable stable performance in the endurance test beyond 800 cycles of programming and erasing. Our study suggests the exciting potential of GQD trap layers to be used for a highly promising material in non-volatile memory devices.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Inhomogeneities of plasma density and electric field as sources of electrostatic turbulence in the auroral region

Inhomogeneities of plasma density and non-uniform electric fields are compared as possible sources of a sort of electrostatic ion cyclotron waves that can be identified with broadband extremely low frequency electrostatic turbulence in the topside auroral ionosphere. Such waves are excited by inhomogeneous energy-density-driven instability. To gain a deeper insight in generation of these waves, computational modeling is performed with various plasma parameters. It is demonstrated that inhomogeneities of plasma density can give rise to this instability even in the absence of electric fields. By using both satellite-observed and model spatial distributions of plasma density and electric field in our modeling, we show that specific details of the spatial distributions are of minor importance for the wave generation. The solutions of the nonlocal inhomogeneous energy-density-driven dispersion relation are investigated for various ion-to-electron temperature ratios and directions of wave propagation. The relevance of the solutions to the observed spectra of broadband extremely low frequency emissions is shown.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Tuning of electrostatic vs. depletion interaction in deciding the phase behavior of nanoparticle-polymer system

Nanoparticle-polymer system interestingly show a re-entrant phase behavior where charge stabilized silica nanoparticles (phase I) undergo particle clustering (phase II) and then back to individual particles (phase I) as a function of polymer concentration. Such phase behavior arises as a result of dominance of various interactions (i) nanoparticle-nanoparticle electrostatic repulsion (ii) polymer induced attractive depletion between nanoparticles and (iii) polymer-polymer repulsion, at different concentration regimes. Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) has been used to study the evolution of interaction during this re-entrant phase behavior of nanoparticles by contrast-marching the polymer. The SANS data have been modeled using a two-Yukawa potential accounting for both attractive and repulsive parts of the interaction between nanoparticles. The degree of both of these parts has been separately tuned by varying the polymer concentration and ionic strength of the solution. Both of these parts are found to have long-range nature. At low polymer concentrations, the electrostatic repulsion dominates over the depletion attraction. The magnitude and the range of the depletion interaction increase with the polymer concentration leading to nanoparticle clustering. At higher polymer concentrations, the increased polymer-polymer repulsion reduces the strength of depletion leading to re-entrant phase behavior. The clusters formed under depletion attraction are found to have surface fractal morphology.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Nonlinear regime of electrostatic waves propagation in presence of electron-electron collisions

The effects are presented of including electron-electron collisions in self-consistent Eulerian simulations of electrostatic wave propagation in nonlinear regime. The electron-electron collisions are approximately modeled through the full three-dimensional Dougherty collisional operator [J. P. Dougherty, Phys. Fluids 7, 1788 (1964)]; this allows the elimination of unphysical byproducts due to reduced dimensionality in velocity space. The effects of non-zero collisionality are discussed in the nonlinear regime of the symmetric bump-on-tail instability and in the propagation of the so-called kinetic electrostatic electron nonlinear (KEEN) waves [T. W. Johnston et al., Phys. Plasmas 16, 042105 (2009)]. For both cases, it is shown how collisions work to destroy the phase-space structures created by particle trapping effects and to damp the wave amplitude, as the system returns to the thermal equilibrium. In particular, for the case of the KEEN waves, once collisions have smoothed out the trapped particle population which sustains the KEEN fluctuations, additional oscillations at the Langmuir frequency are observed on the fundamental electric field spectral component, whose amplitude decays in time at the usual collisionless linear Landau damping rate.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Dispersion relation of electrostatic ion cyclotron waves in multi-component magneto-plasma

Electrostatic ion cyclotron waves in multi component plasma composed of electrons (denoted by e{sup −}), hydrogen ions (denoted by H{sup +}), helium ions (denoted by He{sup +}) and positively charged oxygen ions (denoted by O{sup +})in magnetized cold plasma. The wave is assumed to propagate perpendicular to the static magnetic field. It is found that the addition of heavy ions in the plasma dispersion modified the lower hybrid mode and also allowed an ion-ion mode. The frequencies of the lower hybrid and ion- ion hybrid modes are derived using cold plasma theory. It is observed that the effect of multi-ionfor different plasma densities on electrostatic ion cyclotron waves is to enhance the wave frequencies. The results are interpreted for the magnetosphere has been applied parameters by auroral acceleration region.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Coupling of transit time instabilities in electrostatic confinement fusion devices

A model of the behavior of transit time instabilities in an electrostatic confinement fusion reactor is presented in this letter. It is demonstrated that different modes are excited within the spherical cathode of a Farnsworth fusor. Each of these modes is dependent on the fusion products as well as the acceleration voltage applied between the two electrodes and they couple to a resulting oscillation showing non-linear beat phenomena. This type of instability is similar to the transit time instability of electrons between two resonant surfaces but the presence of ions and the occurring fusion reactions alter the physics of this instability considerably. The physics of this plasma instability is examined in detail for typical physical parameter ranges of electrostatic confinement fusion devices.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Surface plasmon polariton excitation by electrostatic modulation and phase grating in indium-tin-oxide coated lithium niobate slabs

Excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in a non-metal system in visible regime is discussed. With the assistance of phase grating resulted from photorefractive effect and electrostatic modulation of ITO induced by strong photovoltaic effect in iron-doped LiNbO{sub 3}, phase matching condition could be satisfied for SPP excitation in this semiconductor/dielectric system. Both the phase grating instead of metal grating and electrostatic modulation of semiconductor could be used for the design of tunable plasmonic devices based on nonlinear photorefractive crystals.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Driven diffusion against electrostatic or effective energy barrier across α-hemolysin

We analyze the translocation of a charged particle across an α-Hemolysin (αHL) pore in the framework of a driven diffusion over an extended energy barrier generated by the electrical charges of the αHL. A one-dimensional electrostatic potential is extracted from the full 3D solution of the Poisson’s equation. We characterize the particle transport under the action of a constant forcing by studying the statistics of the translocation time. We derive an analytical expression of translocation time average that compares well with the results from Brownian dynamic simulations of driven particles over the electrostatic potential. Moreover, we show that the translocation time distributions can be perfectly described by a simple theory which replaces the true barrier by an equivalent structureless square barrier. Remarkably, our approach maintains its accuracy also for low-applied voltage regimes where the usual inverse-Gaussian approximation fails. Finally, we discuss how the comparison between the simulated time distributions and their theoretical prediction results to be greatly simplified when using the notion of the empirical Laplace transform technique.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

Magnetometry of micro-magnets with electrostatically defined Hall bars

Micro-magnets are key components for quantum information processing with individual spins, enabling arbitrary rotations and addressability. In this work, characterization of sub-micrometer sized CoFe ferromagnets is performed with Hall bars electrostatically defined in a two-dimensional electron gas. Due to the ballistic nature of electron transport in the cross junction of the Hall bar, anomalies such as the quenched Hall effect appear near zero external magnetic field, thus hindering the sensitivity of the magnetometer to small magnetic fields. However, it is shown that the sensitivity of the diffusive limit can be almost completely restored at low temperatures using a large current density in the Hall bar of about 10 A/m. Overcoming the size limitation of conventional etched Hall bars with electrostatic gating enables the measurement of magnetization curves of 440 nm wide micro-magnets with a signal-to-noise ratio above 10{sup 3}. Furthermore, the inhomogeneity of the stray magnetic field created by the micro-magnets is directly measured using the gate-voltage-dependent width of the sensitive area of the Hall bar.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

A nonlinear MEMS electrostatic kinetic energy harvester for human-powered biomedical devices

This article proposes a silicon-based electrostatic kinetic energy harvester with an ultra-wide operating frequency bandwidth from 1 Hz to 160 Hz. This large bandwidth is obtained, thanks to a miniature tungsten ball impacting with a movable proof mass of silicon. The motion of the silicon proof mass is confined by nonlinear elastic stoppers on the fixed part standing against two protrusions of the proof mass. The electrostatic transducer is made of interdigited-combs with a gap-closing variable capacitance that includes vertical electrets obtained by corona discharge. Below 10 Hz, the e-KEH offers 30.6 nJ per mechanical oscillation at 2 g{sub rms}, which makes it suitable for powering biomedical devices from human motion. Above 10 Hz and up to 162 Hz, the harvested power is more than 0.5 μW with a maximum of 4.5 μW at 160 Hz. The highest power of 6.6 μW is obtained without the ball at 432 Hz, in accordance with a power density of 142 μW/cm{sup 3}. We also demonstrate the charging of a 47-μF capacitor to 3.5 V used to power a battery-less wireless temperature sensor node.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Electrostatic twisted modes in multi-component dusty plasmas

Various electrostatic twisted modes are re-investigated with finite orbital angular momentum in an unmagnetized collisionless multi-component dusty plasma, consisting of positive/negative charged dust particles, ions, and electrons. For this purpose, hydrodynamical equations are employed to obtain paraxial equations in terms of density perturbations, while assuming the Gaussian and Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beam solutions. Specifically, approximated solutions for potential problem are studied by using the paraxial approximation and expressed the electric field components in terms of LG functions. The energy fluxes associated with these modes are computed and corresponding expressions for orbital angular momenta are derived. Numerical analyses reveal that radial/angular mode numbers as well as dust number density and dust charging states strongly modify the LG potential profiles attributed to different electrostatic modes. Our results are important for understanding particle transport and energy transfer due to wave excitations in multi-component dusty plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

A generalized Poisson and Poisson-Boltzmann solver for electrostatic environments

The computational study of chemical reactions in complex, wet environments is critical for applications in many fields. It is often essential to study chemical reactions in the presence of applied electrochemical potentials, taking into account the non-trivial electrostatic screening coming from the solvent and the electrolytes. As a consequence, the electrostatic potential has to be found by solving the generalized Poisson and the Poisson-Boltzmann equations for neutral and ionic solutions, respectively. In the present work, solvers for both problems have been developed. A preconditioned conjugate gradient method has been implemented for the solution of the generalized Poisson equation and the linear regime of the Poisson-Boltzmann, allowing to solve iteratively the minimization problem with some ten iterations of the ordinary Poisson equation solver. In addition, a self-consistent procedure enables us to solve the non-linear Poisson-Boltzmann problem. Both solvers exhibit very high accuracy and parallel efficiency and allow for the treatment of periodic, free, and slab boundary conditions. The solver has been integrated into the BigDFT and Quantum-ESPRESSO electronic-structure packages and will be released as an independent program, suitable for integration in other codes.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗